Periodicals in andrology: an overview

a study showed that USA, China, and Japan lead the world in andrology researches for the number of papers published.1 During the past year, significant changes have been made regarding the andrology periodicals. These changes are not limited to the number of journals which is obviously increasing but to the accessibility and contents of these periodicals. These changes include online access to supplemental data, online‐only sections, free and compiled sections, and open access to the authors’ manuscripts (PDF).6 In addition, new features have emerged in medical publication. Like video abstracts and postpublication peer‐review. As it may appear from Table 1, few journals have changed their titles and sponsor organizations. Many andrology journals utilized the social media websites like Facebook, to inform the readers about the new issues of their journals. Some journals have used Open Access publishing which provides immediate, worldwide, access to the full text of all published articles.8 Professional societies play a good role in establishing andrology journals, for examples the European Academy of Andrology which is founded in 1992, and the American Society of Andrology (ASA) which is founded in 1975. The Journal of Andrology first appeared in January 1980, 5 years after the ASA was founded.2 In this commentary, we meant to provide through a tabulation view (Table 1), highlights on some andrology periodicals. A is a medical specialty which is concerned with male reproductive and sexual functions. There are several peer‐reviewed andrology journals.1–9 As shown in Table 1, we highlighted alphabetically on some selected andrology periodicals. However, there are additional periodicals which are not included in Table 1. For example: 1. Archives of Andrology, which started in 1978 and ceased in 2007. It was succeeded by Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine 2. National Journal of Andrology, which started in 1995 and still published, is available online at http://www.oriprobe. com/journals/zhnkx.html 3. The Journal of Andrology , Sexual Medicine and Gender (JSMAG), which is the official journal of the Andrology, Gender, Aging, and Sexual sciences Society of India (AGASSI) (http:// www.agassi.in/). It was formed in 2004. It is available online at http://www. journalonweb.com/jsmag/ 4. Advances in Andrology, which is just launched, is available online at http:// www.hindawi.com/journals/aandrol/.